yu darvish

A look at how the Baltimore Sun's Orioles Insiders see tonight's American League wild-card playoff against the Rangers shaking out.

The 2012 Orioles combine a core of position players assembled by Andy MacPhail with a remarkable set of reclamation projects found by Dan Duquette and astutely deployed by Buck Showalter.

Chris Davis was on the roster of two Texas Rangers teams that eventually went to the World Series. On Friday, he'll play the first big league postseason game of his career in Arlington, but he'll be on the visitor's side.

This isn't the way the Orioles wanted it -- forced to go through Arlington for a one-game wild card playoff to get to the American League Division Series -- but I like the O's chances in Texas on Friday night.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter has all sorts of words that he lives and manages by, but the one he generally trots out when he is team building early in the season is the one about players trusting each other to contribute just enough to get the job done.

The Orioles will enter September not only with a strong chance at the franchise's first winning season in 15 years but in serious contention for a playoff spot. A national baseball audience is finally taking notice.

It is just four days until the calendar turns to September and your team is just 3 1/2 games out of first-place in the American League East, their smallest deficit in th division since June 24. If they remain steady this week against the Chicago White Sox, they can chip into that lead even more this weekend in the Bronx.

Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel finished third in the AL All-Star Game final vote fan balloting, which concluded Thursday afternoon. As expected, Rangers rookie right-hander Yu Darvish won the vote. White Sox right-hander Jake Peavy placed second.

For the first time since 2005, the Orioles will be well-represented at the All-Star Game. Major League Baseball announced the Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and Jim Johnson have been selected by their peers to play for the American League in the Midseason Classic at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Jason Hammel deserves to be an All-Star, but he says he isn't worrying about it.